7800GT performances

[Blood Hawk]

I'm planning on buying a new rig pretty shortly. It's going to involve buying a new everything (or near enough). The setup I'm considering right now is:

Antec Sonata II - 450W
AMD 64 X2 3800
Corsair 2GB CAS2 TwinX
DFI Lanparty SLI-DR Expert
Western Digital 250GB Caviar 16MB Cache HDD

I also plan on getting a new gfx card and was looking at the nVidia 7800GTs. (Not GTX as I'm having to replace a lot of other stuff, as you see, and I want to save for a holiday later in the year too, so money is a bit of an issue! lol )

Would I notice a great deal of difference between a 400MHz core clock speed and 450MHz? I am a gamer but mainly online games at the moment, which aren't all *that* graphics intensive, and some UT2004 - which is a bit meatier in the gfx department. Also, is there really much difference between, for example, the OcUK 7800GT @ 400MHz and the BFG @ 400MHz cards? Performance wise that is. Even though I'm saving for a holiday and things, I'm able to afford the extra £40/50 on the 450MHz/"big brand" cards if there's going to be some sort of noticable improvement for me.

I don't plan on going SLi right now (obviously) but might well do so in the future, hence the SLi-ready equipment I'm planning on buying.

 

[mattx2]

I'd get a the cheaper card and stick the zalman cooler on it. Standard 7800gt fans are loud. With the better cooling you will easy clock the card past the higer clocked standard ones.

My 7800gt is 400/1000 stock with the zalman I've got it at 490/1180 stable

 

[fullfat]

my 7800gt BFG OC version 1 is not loud at all.
it doesnt even turn into a mindless beat whilst gaming, im very happy with mine

 

[Blood Hawk]

Cheers for the responses guys!

 

[clone]

Ive had 2x BFG 7800GTXs and now ive got the BFG 7800GT as i had to sell my GTXs for a better cpu :/ mind you the GT is still doing a grand job in games and so on.

 

[Blood Hawk]

Any particular reason you guys have the BFG cards? (Rather than, say, XFX or Leadtek, or maybe even a PixelView card - I've spotted it cheap somwhere else, etc?)

Edit: Oh, and which Zalman cooler are you referring to? I currently run an Arctic Cooler on my 9800SE card, but see there isn't one of those around for the 7800 at the moment.

 

[Jamie1984]

Any particular reason you guys have the BFG cards? (Rather than, say, XFX or Leadtek, or maybe even a PixelView card - I've spotted it cheap somwhere else, etc?)

they were on special a while back for £234 inc VAT and were the cheapest 7800GT on OC at the time, oh and 450mhz clock instead of 400.
Infact I don't remember seeing leadtek on OC when i bought my bfg.

 

[Blood Hawk]

they were on special a while back for £234 inc VAT and were the cheapest 7800GT on OC at the time, oh and 450mhz clock instead of 400.
Infact I don't remember seeing leadtek on OC when i bought my bfg.

Yeah they're 425 clock at the moment, and the most expensive GT card on OC. I'll give it some more thought over next couple of days I guess.

 

[tbz_ck]

I got the OcUK one. Its a Point of View branded card. Like Matt I put a Zalman VF700CU on mine and get 490/1180 stable (not yet tried higher!)

The Leadtek one is even cheaper and based on the same nVidia reference design. So get that and a Zalman. It'll be cheaper than the XFX or BFG and quieter. Of course 3rd party cooling invalidates your warranty so you pays your money and makes your choice.....

 

[teggs]

they were on special a while back for £234 inc VAT and were the cheapest 7800GT on OC at the time

I got mine for £211.50 inc VAT!!
Just buy the cheapest card there, as they are all the same design, just different packaging!! BFG has a lifetime warrenty, although i invalidated mine by sticking an arctic cooler on and volt modding it. it is now running at 499/1190.

 

[Blood Hawk]

I got mine for £211.50 inc VAT!!
Just buy the cheapest card there, as they are all the same design, just different packaging!! BFG has a lifetime warrenty, although i invalidated mine by sticking an arctic cooler on and volt modding it. it is now running at 499/1190.

Yeah I figured this was pretty much the case, jsut thought I'd make sure!

Cheers guys.

I'll probably let it run at stock for a couple of weeks first (like the rest of my system) to make sure it works fine ... then I'll probably ramp up the speeds a little, see what I can get with the X2/7800GT